"How many millions were shot and killed because they were unarmed?" Young asked at an event in Juneau, Alaska, before answering his own question. "Fifty million in Russia because their citizens were unarmed. How many Jews were put into the ovens because they were unarmed?"

Young's words, offered in response to a question about guns in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., high school shootings earlier this month, drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, a national organization that aims to counter anti-Semitism.

"Guns, or lack of them, did not cause the Holocaust," the ADL wrote on Twitter. "The Holocaust was the product of anti-Semitism & other forms of hate. It's offensive for anyone to manipulate the history of the Holocaust to score political points."

But Young, who is the longest serving member of the House, isn't the first politician to float this Holocaust hypothesis, nor is it the first time the 84-year-old has gotten himself in hot water with commentary that roiled a minority group.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson made the same assertion, which has been embraced by conservative gun defenders for years, on the presidential campaign trail in 2015.

"I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed," Carson said in an interview. "I'm telling you there is a reason these dictatorial people take guns first."

The House Natural Resources Committee, of which Young is chairman emeritus, also caused a small stir last year when it invited Stephen Halbrook, author of "Gun Control in the Third Reich," to testify on legislation that would eliminate a $200-per-unit tax on silencers to one equal to 10 percent of the value of the device, and loosen restrictions on transporting hunting and fishing equipment on federal lands.

In 2013, Young was forced to apologize after he referred to migrant workers as "wetbacks" in a radio interview.

Then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called his comment "beneath the dignity of the office he holds."

Young, first elected in 1972, became the "dean of the House" — the chamber's longest-serving member — in December, following the resignation of then-Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.

He was congratulated on the House floor by Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in January when lawmakers paused legislative business to honor his accomplishment.